


Invincible

by NyxNight



Series: Shields [2]
Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-10 15:59:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13504896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxNight/pseuds/NyxNight
Summary: After the season finale, Lauren is devastated. Her brother chose to leave and the mutant underground has suffered a huge blow. To top it off, her powers are developing and she doesn't know if it's for better or worse. But maybe all hope isn't lost because as Lauren works her way to becoming a key part of the underground, a relationship is beginning to form between her and John.





	1. Broke down (hit the ground)

**Author's Note:**

> After the great feedback on the first story, I decided to write a sequel where Lauren and John's relationship will develop from simply being on the same side to friends and eventually lovers. This will also build on Lauren's powers which the show doesn't elaborate on much although she does mention that she can create shield's from any element, it's just easier with air and we see in episode 2 that it's more than just shields so I've decided to create my own interpretation of her powers. Hope you enjoy this, please comment and tell me what you think! Unfortunately, updates will be slow as I'm pretty busy with college but I'll try to update at least once a month.

_"You know I was broke down, I had hit the ground_  
_I was crying out, I couldn't make no sound_  
_No one hears the silent tears collecting."_

Her brother was gone. The memory of him leaving and the look on his face as he threw them back played through her mind like a broken record. How had Andy become so violent? In all the years since he was born,  
they'd been inseparable; he had never hurt her whether it was voluntarily or by accident, not once had he hurt her. What changed? Gaining powers doesn't change who you are so how had she failed her brother? Why would he abandon his entire family to join the hellfire club; join those that are willing to destroy all of humanity, to kill people like her grandmother just because they are human. He would blame all of humanity for the mistakes of what is only part of the population. Yes, most humans hate mutants but some still see that mutants are no different from them. Andy knows that. So why did her leave to wage a war on humanity same as Magneto and the brotherhood who had a huge role in creating the chaotic, broken world they live in now, why?

Lauren couldn't help but blame herself for missing the signs; for not doing more to help him. She had known he was angry; she felt it when they touched (a side effect of their fenris powers). Maybe if she had done more to try and calm him, shown Andy that there's still good in the world, maybe he would still be with them. But it doesn't matter now. At the end of the day, he's gone and she's alone. Her parents barely speak to her or she barely speaks to them (Lauren can't tell the difference anymore). The mutant underground had relocated to an abandoned mansion she told them about. She told them sentinel services wouldn't find them there; she knew the previous (technically current) owners and they were long gone but the mansion remained under their name so no one would suspect anything. While all of that is true, she left out that the owners were Faye's parents who had both been mutants who'd died in the fight between the brotherhood and the x men, caught in the middle. Their bodies were never found and since no one knew they died, Faye as a teenager continued living there alone using the large fund they left for her. Faye told her about the mansion; she'd even visited Faye on several occasions and stayed there while telling her parents she was sleeping at a friends (technically not really a lie, Faye was a friend but she was also more). A few weeks before her death, Faye told Lauren that if anything happens to her, the mansion belongs to Lauren.

_*Flashback*_

_They were lying together on Faye's couch, watching an old movie, a romantic comedy that she forgot the name of. Lauren rested her hear on the older girls shoulder and smiled at her, they'd long ago stopped watching the movie in favour of kissing and exchanging smiles and soft comments. Lauren felt like she was floating high on a cloud, as if she could never fall down. Suddenly, Faye's beautiful smile vanished suddenly as a sad moment played in the background._

_"Laur, I want to know something." Faye spoke with a tone that said she wasn't going to relax until whatever worried her was resolved and Lauren let her own smile fall slightly at the pain on her girlfriends face._

_"Of course, anything." Lauren took Faye's hand and gave her what she hoped was a determined, supportive look. She hoped her worry wasn't showing._

_"If something happens to me, I want to know you have somewhere to go..."_

_"...Faye, nothing will happen to you. Please, stop talking as if you're going to die. I can't handle losing you and I won't." Faye just shook her head, a firm look on her face that told Lauren nothing would change her mind so Lauren just sighed and nodded for to continue._

_"If something does happen, if you ever need somewhere to go if you're in danger or anything like that, I need you to know that you can come here. No one will ever come here, I made sure of that after my parents died. There's a psychic field on this place designed to keep people away and you know that no one comes in this area anyway; it's in the middle of the forest. You'll be safe here and I don't mind if you bring anyone else here. You know where the safe is, the code is my birthday. If you ever need it, that money is yours. Promise me, you'll come here; promise me you'll be safe." Her voice was frantic. Lauren knew Faye, she would only be worried if she suspected she was in danger but Lauren also knew she wouldn't let her help her, especially if she wasn't sure what the threat was so she just nodded, agreeing softly._

_"I promise." Faye kissed her passionately and for a while, Lauren forgot about her promise, getting lost in her love for Faye._

_*Flashback End*_

 

"So what is this place? How did you know about it?" John asked when they arrived. Lauren focused on letting them past the psychic field that shielded the mansion and frowned when she heard the question.

*****

"A friend of mine, she was a mutant, four years olded than me with telepathic and empath abilities. She lived here but the place is still under her parents name. They died when she was 13, leaving everything to her and she placed a psychic field on the place to prevent anyone coming near it. She died the same day I discovered my powers but she'd told me a few weeks before that I can come here if anything happens to her and I'm in danger." I explained, leaving details out and keeping my voice calm, normal. John wasn't the only one who stated at me in surprise. My parents gave me questioning looks but I ignored them, pretending I didn't see.

"If there's a psychic field around the place, why can we see it; why aren't we compelled to leave?" John asked and I smiled slightly at that, it was a good question.

"Faye was an empath as well so the field lets me in because of out...friendship. It's connected to me as much as it was her because she made me the owner if anything happened so I can let people in which is why you aren't affected by it." Even in death, our love remained and it keeps me safe once again. John nodded, accepting the answer. Marcus asks about the layout and I tell them to follow me as I lead them out of the large entranceway and to the living room to the right. It's a large, dark blue room with three black sofas covered by white cushions surrounding a small wooden table in the middle of the room, one opposite the large TV on the wall and another against the wall at a right angle to the first and the last opposite the previous one with the back to the door. Next to a large white cabinet which I know to be mostly empty, there are 4 rows of wooden shelves against the wall opposite the TV, the top two filled by books (mostly fiction, romance and fantasy stories Faye had collected over time) while the bottom shelves remained empty except for a rolled up piece of A3 paper on the last shelf. I walk over to the shelf, taking the piece of paper and as I walk over to the group, I open it up to show them the two floor plans that are printed onto it. For the first time since the he'll fire club and some of out former team left, both Marcus and John smile and the entire group gathers to discuss plans. As I listen to my father argue with Marcus about sleeping arrangements and getting supplies, I smile. Maybe we can do this. With time we may be able to move on from the huge bomb that hit us from the events of the afternoon. There was still hope for them after all...


	2. Lost Hope (I was all alone)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mutant underground begins to rebuild and as Lauren's powers develop, so does her relationship with John.

 

 

 

 

 

> "You know I had lost hope, I was all alone  
>  Never been so low 'til you came along  
>  Teacher, I feel the dots connecting"

Lauren finally finished helping John put more beds in each room and clearing away anything that wasn't needed which included all of Faye's things. If John noticed her silently suffering as she saw pictures of her and Faye, pictures she hadn't seen since Faye's death, then he didn't say anything. Lauren put all of Faye's personal belongings in the basement. She knew it was impossible to miss the fact that most of the photos in the house were of her and Faye but she was glad that neither John or her parents said anything.

Not that her parents talked to her much anyway. Lauren was partly glad for it because it meant she didn't have to explain Faye and the house, bringing up old memories too painful to talk about now that they were stained with the cold darkness of her girlfriend's death. She also understood that her parents, like her, were grieving the loss of Andy, angry upset and guilty about his choice to leave with Lorna and the Frost sisters. Similarly, they probably blamed themselves partly for not doing enough to dissuade Andy from the dark thoughts that made him leave. Lauren wanted to comfort them and tell them it wasn't their fault -if anything she should have done something because she knew about those thoughts- but she couldn't because she did partly blame them.

Her parents had raised both Andy and her with the idea that mutants were monsters, that they shouldn't be using their powers. Their father prosecuted mutants simply for accidently using their powers. It wasn't exactly ideal to be raised with these ideas and then learn ypu are one of these monsters that you'd been brought up to hate. Lauren only dealt with it well because she had known Faye, had loved her. Faye's powers only added to her beauty, had made her more extraordinary. However, Andy didn't know any mutants. Until his powers unleashed themselves, he had thought of mutants as mobsters. So the only way to cope with his powers was to believe the opposite: humans were monsters. It hadn't helped that his powers awakened when he was being beaten by human bullies.

Therefore, yes, Lauren did partly blame their parents and although she knows it's wrong to blame them, she can't help it, can't change the fact that she resents them slightly for raising them tm with the belief that mutants are monsters, that they are monsters. It's what had kept Lauren from telling them the truth about her powers, she had known there was a chance that she would be locked up by her father like all the other mutants. Even if she was his daughter, she had seen parents refuse anything to do with their mutant children, even report them to the police or sentinel services. But at the end of the day, she had been wrong. Her parents didn't react badly. They had been willing to drop everything and move them to Mexico, her father had been especially vocal about it. That makes up for anything her parents had done during their childhood that gave them the idea that mutants were monsters. But even though she could now forgive her parents, she can't forget that those ideas and beliefs are part of the reason her little brother left.

**********

"Who was she, your friend? You must have meant a lot to her for her to leave you all this." Lauren startled at John's voice. She had stepped outside to get some fresh air. Also to get away from the echoes of Faye that filled almost every room of the mansion. Empathic imprints. It was too much for her and almost everywhere she looked, she saw a glimps of her girlfriend (heard the beautiful sound of her laughter, smelled the sweet scent of her perfume, tasted the warmth of Faye's love) now with the cold, dark taint of death surrounding the memory.

Turning around, she looked at John. His warm umber eyes portrayed only curiosity. She sighed. This would be a long and difficult story to tell. Faye's story couldn't be told in a few minutes, it didn't do her justice but Lauren would have to summarise her and Faye's story and relationship into a few minutes. She can't take any longer without breaking into tears, that she knows.

"I used to come to this forest just for some peace, to think and escape my family for a few hours. That's how we met. Faye was four years older that me and she rarely left the forest after her parents died, both were mutants who were caught between the x men and the brotherhood. She and I bumped into each other one day while we were both walking around the forest and we immediately hit it off. I didn't know I was a mutant at the time but Faye told me about her powers not long after we met. She was an empath but a powerful one. She didn't just read emotions; she manipulated feelings. That's why people stay away from this place. The field surrounding it makes them want to stay away, makes them afraid but after we became friends, Faye connected it to my emotions as well so I wasn't affected by it and could let others through it. We spent most of our time together in either the forest or here, at the house just talking, hanging out. It was my home away from home. Eventually, we fell in love." Lauren looks down, trying to stop the tears entering her eyes; attempting to ignore the despair in her heart. John placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort. A warmth settles on her skin, under his hand. She thinks that maybe her hopeless crush may not be so hopeless but ignores the flutter in her stomach, it's easy with Faye's memory surrounding her.

"As with everything, that happiness was ruined pretty quickly. Faye started acting strange, worried, wary. One day she asked me to promise her if anything happens to her and I needed somewhere safe to go, to come here where she made sure I would be safe. I think she always knew she was going to die. Not long after, we were in the forest and suddenly she was shot. I never found out who killed her; it was a sniper shot, no warning, no sight of who did it. Next thing I know, there's a force field around us but it was too late, she was already dead. I never told my parents, couldn't bear to, especially when I would have to tell them about my powers first." She finished the explanation. Rather than say anything, John pulls her into a warm hug. She knows he understands what it feels like to lose someone you love and is thankful for his comforting precence. She's grateful he doesn't bother to offer useless words of comfort, lies like it's OK or worse, apologies, pity.

"I know this must be hard for you, coming back here, being surrounded by the memories. Especially after what happened with your brother. How are you, really?" John asks when they finally pull out of the hug although he still keeps his hand on her arm. He looks her in the eyes with an intensity that startles her. "Honestly...I don't know. I guess I'm still partly in shock, trying to process everything that's happened recently. This house, it's overwhelming and it doesn't help that my powers are getting stronger." There's a questioning look from John and she continues, unsure why she feels as if she can talk to him about anything. She doesn't know why she's able to tell him the truth when she can't even talk to her own parents about this. For some reason, she trusts John more than anyone else and that scares her but it's also a comfort to finally be able to tell someone about everything, to trust someone with the truth. "My powers aren't just limited to force fields. They used to be. I can create force field from nearly any element, pushed the molecules together to create a shield. Air is just the easiest. I've known for a while that my power is a lot more than creating shields. When I closed Clarice's portal, that wasn't the only time I used it for something else. Molecular manipulation is the technical term for what I do. When I push elements together, theoretically I can make anything, not just shield's but until recently I haven't actually been able to to much more than create force fields. But when Lorna left with and Andy and the others, I noticed that I'd accidentally used my power and created a sort of dagger shape out of air and similar things have happened since we got here that suggest my powers are evolving. It scares me; what if I can't control it?" Lauren looks up at John who smiles at her. "I have no doubt you will be able to control it considering you were able to learn to control your powers by yourself before. And this time you won't be alone. Tomorrow, after breakfast we are going to come out here and I'm going to help you train. Not just train you to use and control your powers but also teach you to fight. Your family are a permanent part of the mutant underground now so it'll be good for you to learn to fight without your powers so you can start fighting with us more. Your parents may not like it, but I have a feeling you might." Lauren grins and hugs John, overtaken by joy. This is the the first real good news she's had in a while. She's wanted to contribute to the mutant underground and be a real part of it for a while since they took her and her family in but she'd been too afraid of rejection or of her parents refusing to let her. Now she can do more than simply helping out with little things. If she learns to fight, to control and use her powers more, she will be a real asset to the mutant underground. Lauren knows it's stupid but all she wants right now is to feel useful, to be needed. Now John is offering her that chance she feels happier than she has in a long time...


End file.
